Reporters want John Paul II to be 'communicators' patron

Polish pontiff had close relationship with the media

(ANSA) - Vatican City, June 23 - A Rome journalists' union
has asked Pope Benedict XVI to name his predecessor, the late
John Paul II, the patron saint of 'communicators' of the digital
age once his canonization takes place.

The request was made by Sindacato Cronist Romani (Roman
Reporters Union) chief Romano Bartolini, who said the act would
recognize the late pope's ''wise and courageous openness to all
new technologies''.

The Polish pontiff had a close relationship with the media
during his 26-year papacy and exploited it in a way no other
pope had before.
Reporters and television journalists and crews closely
shadowed him in his journeys abroad, often travelling with him
on the same plane.

Journalists already have their own patron saint, Francis de
Sales.

John Paul II was beatified May 1 at an ceremony presided
over by Pope Benedict in St.Peter's Square, with a crowd of
around 1.5 million watching one of history's most popular popes
move a step from sainthood.

Benedict sanctioned the beatification in January after a
Vatican commission officially attributed a miracle to John Paul
- the inexplicable recovery of a French nun, Sister Marie
Simon-Pierre, from Parkinson's Disease through the intervention
of the late pope.

The now blessed Polish pontiff also suffered from
Parkinson's Disease.

John Paul will have to be attributed with another miracle
before he can be canonized.

Pope Benedict XVI put his predecessor's beatification cause
on a fast track, waiving a rule requiring a five-year wait
before the start of the process, after crowds called on him to
be made a 'Santo Subito!' (Saint Now!) at his funeral.

The Vatican, however, has insisted this did not mean the
process had been any less rigorous than otherwise would have
been the case.

John Paul died on April 2, 2005, at the age of 84. Pope
Benedict proclaimed October 22 to be his feast day, the same
date he became pope in 1978.